Good morning. Corporate bonds valued at a record $97.1 billion reached investment grade status over the past year, led by commodity companies pulling out of a market rout, according to today's CFO Journal.

The surge in upgrades opens these companies to lower-cost borrowing and illustrates how swiftly commodity companies turned the corner. Finance chiefs responded to slumping resource prices, which hit a nadir in early 2016, by slashing costs and selling assets. The operations improvements helped revive profit margins and reduce debt.

A credit upgrade is a badge of honor for CFOs as it is a sign of their financial acumen. “It shows discipline and it shows a commitment to a conservative balance sheet,” said Todd Schomberg, senior portfolio manager at Invesco Ltd.

THE DAY AHEAD

European Union flags fly outside of the Europa Building on July 10, 2017.

Bloomberg News

The eurozone inflation report is due out on Monday, with economists predicting that consumer prices rose 1.3% in July, the same pace as June.

Charter spurns Sprint merger. Charter Communications Inc. said it isn’t interested in buying Sprint Corp., rejecting a merger offer that would have put a massive new entity in the hands of SoftBank Group Corp.

Four activists challenge plans to split DowDuPont. Jana Partners LLC and Trian Fund Management LP have joined Third Point LLC and Glenview Capital Management in their opposition to plans to company managements’ plans to carve up the joined Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co.

WeChat is iPhone’s top worry in China. Chinese messaging app WeChat, which can be used to pay restaurant bills, hail cabs, play games and more, is undermining the need for Apple Inc.’s iphone in the largest market outside the U.S.

Retailers’ woes could be linked to private equity. Private-equity investors who took over retailers over the past decade often loaded the companies with debt and creditor lawyers are investigating whether this accelerated the collapse of some of these companies.

Europe’s banks are on firmer footing. Several large European banks including UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse Group AG posted better than expected earnings, a sign that the sector’s long-running restructuring efforts are yielding results.

Fiat Chrysler gets green light to sell diesel vehicles. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV received approval from government regulators to sell 2017 model year vehicles equipped with diesel engines, the company said Friday. The green light comes after a months-long delay and amid a probe into the company’s alleged use of illegal emissions software.

REGULATION

A customer compares a jet black iPhone 7, right, with her iPhone 6 at the Apple Store in Chicago in September 2016.

Wind farms, factory robots at risk from hackers. Fresh flaws revealed at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference show how hackers could use weak industrial control systems to hijack factory robots or halt energy production by wind farm turbines, reports the Financial Times.

EARNINGS

The HSBC building in London’s Canary Wharf financial district.

Bloomberg News

HSBC launches share buyback on profit gains. HSBC Holdings PLC said it would buy back another $2 billion in shares after second quarter profit rose 57% to $3.87 billion. The move adds to the $3.5 billion in stock the bank has repurchased since last year.

Samsung seizes top chip maker spot. Samsung Electronics Co. has eclipsed Intel Corp. as the world’s largest chip maker by revenue, knocking the American company off a perch it held for nearly a quarter century. Samsung’s semiconductor unit report sales of $15.7 billion, beating Intel’s $14.8 billion.

ECONOMY

A worker cycles near a factory at the Keihin industrial zone in Kawasaki, Japan on February 28, 2017.

Reuters

Japan industrial production recovers. Japan’s industrial production rose 1.6% month on month in June, rebounding from a fall in the prior month for the third time in 2017, reports the Financial Times.

Slumping dollar points to Trump worries. The U.S. dollar has notched its longest slide in six years on President Donald Trump’s watch as currency traders wager that the political drama in Washington will weaken the American economy, reports Bloomberg.

OPEC members can’t stop pumping oil. The once powerful oil cartel is struggling to hold the line in a make-or-break fight to limit oil production, because eight months after a landmark deal to cut oil output several members are producing more than promised to meet budget obligations.

The Morning Ledger from CFO Journal cues up the most important news in corporate finance every weekday morning. Send tips, suggestions and complaints to the editor: kimberly.johnson@wsj.com